Best books for learning & understanding scales/modes.

mightyjoeyoungxnj

mightyjoeyoungxnj

New member
Hello all,

I've taken a break from playing for a few years (shame on me; career and a kid will do that to you!) and am slowly getting back up to speed playing. I've played for many years but have never really crafted my lead playing. I've been on a huge 80's kick lately and love some tasty 80's leads.

I want to challenge myself and finally learn all the notes on the fretboard, all the basic scales/modes (as well as understanding what a mode is and how it relates to a scale), and learn how to apply that to my playing. I'm not necessarily interested in learning to sight read, just the theory that relates to playing.

I basically want to understand how the scales work, where they come from, and how the modes derive from them.

I know there are tons of books out there, but any recommendations would be very helpful. I'm also not opposed to learning online.

thanks!
 
Allan Holdsworth talks a lot about this kind of thing. He has a book called 'Just for the Curious' that might be what you're looking for.
 
The Guitar Grimoire series is really good. Check out some of Rick Beato's intro to theory vids on Youtube. He did a good job of laying out the basics and explaining it clearly in a way that makes sense. Get a grip on the concepts with stuff like his videos and then find a good book and just geek out on it for a while. It will start to fall into place.
 
I think Guthrie Govan's books are well put together and worth the buy.

There are so many great free lessons available that I think building your own theory/reference notebook would be ultimately more valuable. I know for me, actually writing stuff down really helps me wrap my head around it.

Have fun!
 
Thinking in terms of scales and modes is helpful. HOWEVER, it won't help you make music. I learned this the hard way.

Early on in my playing, when I was in high school, I'm 55 now), i learned scales and modes cold. I could play them fast too, but I couldn't really make music with it, which blew my mind. It took me longer than it should have to get out of that.

Then I learned arpeggios, which helped me progress a little in being able to make music.

Then I started focusing more simply on chord tones plus using all of the above to dance around (encolsures) chord tones.

Although I'm not a jazz guy, I really like Charlie Parker's lines, which illustrate how to make music with all of the above. I studied the head for donna lee, which is a wealth of little phrases. For instance, there are several little phrases (what people are now calling cells), that you can take and apply to non jazz tune, like playing over a 1 chord funk vamp. If you take a little phrase, try to figure out different ways to finger it. As you do, you'll get ideas derived from that line. Next thing you know, you realize that you have new line (expanding your line vocabulary) or you can take an existing line you use and connect or modify it with this new one.

Another thing: singing. I'm not into or can't play like Derek Trucks, but one thing that he made me realize is to make your solos sing. When I tried to sing a line in my head rather than letting my fingers dictate the phrase (from muscle memory shapes), it made me come up with nice musical lines that sound more like our heros (like Derek and many others). It gets you out of sounding like your playing scales.

One good thing about focusing on scales and modes early on, even though I did it for too long, was that it gave me necessary knowledge that we all should know:
1. Chord theory
2. Knowing all chords in the major and minor key
3. Visual roadmap of the fret board
 
I have a few books of scales but it never clicks with me. It’s like I know the scales but I can’t use them. Doesn’t make sense I know. I guess knowing the scales is different from being able to creative use them. For me at least.
 
D20 said:
I have a few books of scales but it never clicks with me. It’s like I know the scales but I can’t use them. Doesn’t make sense I know. I guess knowing the scales is different from being able to creative use them. For me at least.
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Exactly. That's what I experienced when I knew only scales. Since then, I focus on chord tones, which means I mainly play lines that consist of bits of arpegios and pentantonic scale. Pentatonic just means it's a simpler scale, the main notes.

A great exercise is to hum a simple phrase, then replicate it on guitar. Then hum and replicate variations of that simple phrase. You'll find that you're mainly humming chord tones with a few scale notes here and there.

I don't play slide, but I have heard a lot of Derek Trucks. He would play some really power lines that I liked. They were different than typical guitar pattern blues box licks. I realized he plays like a singer. It was not scales.

If you are at, say, a blues jam and you play simple lines like this that come from you humming the line in your head, and you play them with good feel (the right touch, vibrato, dynamics, soft and loud when appropriate, etc.), you will stand out as sounding more professional.
 
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mightyjoeyoungxnj said:
I want to challenge myself and finally learn all the notes on the fretboard, all the basic scales/modes (as well as understanding what a mode is and how it relates to a scale), and learn how to apply that to my playing. I'm not necessarily interested in learning to sight read, just the theory that relates to playing.

I basically want to understand how the scales work, where they come from, and how the modes derive from them.

I know there are tons of books out there, but any recommendations would be very helpful. I'm also not opposed to learning online.

thanks!
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Specifically with regard to learning scales, the best resource I've found so far (not that I've seen them all) has been Claus Levin's video lecture series, in particular his Fretboard Freedom program. The program uses A Minor as it's focus, and once you got the process down you move on to the rest of the keys/scales, presumably with less effort required than the initial scale since you just shift the patterns for key changes or make small modifications for many non-diatonic scales. It's methodically and analytically focused on building conceptual, visual, and motor skill mastery. Conceptual meaning you understand how the shapes are laid out on the fretboard, how they change and repeat as you move around, etc., not the deeper theory you mentioned regarding scale origins and modes. Visual being that you can look at the fretboard and "see" all the notes laid out for the scale. Motor-skills being that you don't have to think about where to put your fingers anymore, it's easy and automatic. You can hold a conversation while your fingers stroll around the fretboard. I have the previous version of his Fretboard Freedom program, and it's pretty great. I never stayed on the wagon long enough to finish it, but I did enough so that I'm most of the way through visual mastery and am pretty comfortable in the first 12 frets. I plan on re-visting the program and seeing things through after I get my alternate picking to a satisfactory level since I can play Emperor covers without knowing scales, but not without a wicked right hand. His new version (what's currently available) I believe also incorporates note name memorization into the scheme, based on an email exchange I had with him while working through the v1 program.

He also has various lecture series/practice programs for theory related stuff like modes, but I'm not sure if any are currently available. His modal mastery program comes around now and again, which is focused mostly on that. He does have some free stuff available that touches on it, for example this music radar article and video: https://www.musicradar.com/how-to/video-lesson-a-mode-is-not-a-scale


Sorry if I sound a bit like a shill, I just really like his approach. In my limited experience I haven't found anything else as analytic or methodical with respect to guitar stuff, and that appeals to me a lot.
 
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I disagree. Learning the fingerboard on a single string approach by repetition will your train your ear and see how it works. Modes are useless, who cares where you start or stop. The distance between notes is all that matters, the interval is all that matters in expression.

To play the guitar you don't need a book.
 
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Exo-metal said:
I disagree. Learning the fingerboard on a single string approach by repetition will your train your ear and see how it works. Modes are useless, who cares where you start or stop. The distance between notes is all that matters, the interval is all that matters in expression.

To play the guitar you don't need a book.
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I been teaching this to people on RT . Smashed guitarist and alund can vouch that my lesson on this are great and really fun . You should give me a try sometime. Just an idea . Be fun to work with you
 
Techdeth said:
I been teaching this to people on RT . Smashed guitarist and alund can vouch that my lesson on this are great and really fun . You should give me a try sometime. Just an idea . Be fun to work with you
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Yeah. I’ll vouch for Nik. Great teacher. Also fun to talk to. I believe it’s definitely worth a try at any level.
I went to guitar school a long time ago. Did what the OP did; school work family etc and was in a non learning mode of music for 2 decades. When I was young I bullshitted my way through music and didn’t take it as serious as I should have. Cheated ways through solos, ideas, theory etc etc. during Covid I started much more serious and enjoy it so much more now. I decided to go back to school for music. Funny thing it’s not just about playing notes, scales, arps, sweeps etc. I learned at “rigtalk” school all sorts of stuff. Professor Nik just happens to be my instructor.
 
Yeah. He has me practicing every night. First time in my life i have enjoyed learning scales, and my hands are opening up.

He will make you a monster player. Very relaxed lessons, but he can go as fast as you can handle
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
Yeah. He has me practicing every night. First time in my life i have enjoyed learning scales, and my hands are opening up.

He will make you a monster player. Very relaxed lessons, but he can go as fast as you can handle
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Thanks man and thanks to @alund . It’s great teaching you guys and now I know what you look like lol . I always pictured you guys different in my head lol . But ya teaching you RT guys is the best because you guys already can play . It’s fun for me too
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
Yeah. He has me practicing every night. First time in my life i have enjoyed learning scales, and my hands are opening up.

He will make you a monster player. Very relaxed lessons, but he can go as fast as you can handle
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what's the trick to enjoying scales?
 
jchrisf said:
what's the trick to enjoying scales?
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I think for me, scales always led to more questions than answers. I had jackasses try to teach me before and couldnt answer those questions. Plus the one guy that was trying to teach me music theory was showing me closed position and never explained modes.

I am now learning in open position and seeing how to apply and transition to dorian, phrygian, lydian, myxolidian, etc. I also love diatonic arpeggios.

Seeing my hand able to effortlessly stretch from fret 1 to 12 (maybe not that far,.lol) makes playing a lot more fun.

There isnt any magic, but it is obvious and purposeful teaching, and it has me playing all the time when i was going a month or so in between picking up the guitar

I tried learning myself and so i know a few cool things, but you don't know what you dont know and @Techdeth does and is trying to cram.it into my thick skull
 
You can learn tnps or fnps... But CAGED is a much better system.

More than just scales and modes understanding harmony and how it fits into CAGED is much more useful. But it takes a lot longer. 4 note chords, etc.

I have been working on mandolin and piano more recently. But the guitar stuff is endless.

Obviously rhythm is the weak spot for most musicians.
 
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